What did Ibn al-Salah mean by his statement that in later eras people turned away from considering the totality of conditions for hadith narrators and their shaykhs, and sufficed with what preserves the characteristic of the isnad, namely that the shaykh be a Muslim, an adult, sane, not openly immoral, and that his ضبط (precision/accuracy) be confirmed by the presence of his authenticated سماع (audition) in an untainted handwriting, and his narration from a copy that matches his shaykh's original?

In recent times, people have neglected to consider the full set of conditions for narrating a Hadith and its shaykhs (teachers), due to the impossibility of fulfilling them and because the current objective is to preserve the prophetic chain of narration. Therefore, only the conditions pertinent to this objective are considered. It suffices for the shaykh to be a Muslim, an adult, not openly فاسق (transgressing), and for his precision (ضبط) to be confirmed by the presence of his authenticated hearing (سماع) recorded in the handwriting of a trustworthy person, and by his narration from a sound original copy that matches his shaykh's original. Al-Bayhaqi alluded to this broad approach in hearing Hadith from the Muhaddithin (Hadith scholars) for recording Ahadith in the comprehensive collections, and that the purpose of narration and hearing is the continuation of Hadith transmission and the preservation of the honor of this Ummah. Al-Dhahabi mentioned that in our time, reliance is placed on the Muhaddithin and the meticulous, trustworthy, and truthful individuals in accurately recording the names of those who heard (the Hadith).